Method Of Differentiation - JEE Main Previous Year Question with Solutions

eSaral Academic and Editorial Team
Summary
Method of Differentiation covers essential JEE Main concepts such as implicit differentiation, inverse functions, chain rule, parametric differentiation, higher-order derivatives, and applications through previous year solved questions.

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[esquestion] Let y be an implicit function of x defined by $x^{2 x}-2 x^{x}$ cot $y-1=0 .$ Then $y^{\prime}(1)$ equals : (1) $\log 2$ $(2)-\log 2$ (3) –1 (4) 1 #tag# [AIEEE-2009] #sol# (3) $\left(x^{x}\right)^{2}-2 \cot y x^{x}-1=0$ $\mathrm{x}^{\mathrm{x}}=\frac{2 \cot y \pm \sqrt{4 \cot ^{2} y+4}}{2}\left\{\begin{array}{l}{\text { at } \mathrm{x}=1} \\ {1=\cot y+\csc y} \\ {\Rightarrow y=\frac{\pi}{2}}\end{array}\right.$ $=\cot y \pm \csc y$ $\mathrm{x}^{\mathrm{x}}=\cot \mathrm{y}+\csc \mathrm{y}$ diff. w.r. to $\mathrm{x}$ $\mathrm{x}^{\mathrm{x}}(1+\log \mathrm{x})=\left[-\csc ^{2} \mathrm{y}-\csc \mathrm{y} \cot \mathrm{y}\right] \frac{\mathrm{d} y}{\mathrm{dx}}$ $1=-\csc y[\csc y+\cot y] \frac{d y}{d x}$ $\frac{\mathrm{dy}}{\mathrm{dx}}=-1$ [/esquestion] [esquestion] Let $\mathrm{f}:(-1,1) \rightarrow \mathrm{R}$ be a differentiable function with $\mathrm{f}(0)=-1$ and $\mathrm{f}(0)=1 .$ Let $\mathrm{g}(\mathrm{x})=[\mathrm{f}(2 \mathrm{f}(\mathrm{x})+$ $2)]^{2} .$ Then $\mathrm{g}^{\prime}(0):$ (1) 4 (2) –4 (3) 0 (4) –2 #tag# [AIEEE-2010] #sol# (2) $\mathrm{g}(\mathrm{x})=[\mathrm{f}(2 \mathrm{f}(\mathrm{x})+2)]^{2}$ $\mathrm{g}^{\prime}(\mathrm{x})=2 \mathrm{f}[2 \mathrm{f}(\mathrm{x})+2] \mathrm{f}^{\prime}[2 \mathrm{f}(\mathrm{x})+2] \cdot 2 \mathrm{f}^{\prime}(\mathrm{x})$ Put $\mathrm{x}=0$ $\mathrm{g}^{\prime}(0)=2 \mathrm{f}[2 \mathrm{f}(0)+2] \mathrm{f}^{\prime}[2 \mathrm{f}(0)+2] 2 \mathrm{f}^{\prime}(0)$ $=2 \mathrm{f}(2(-1)+2) \mathrm{f}^{\prime}(2(-1)+2) 2 \mathrm{f}^{\prime}(0)$ $=2 \mathrm{f}(0) \mathrm{f}^{\prime}(0) 2 \mathrm{f}^{\prime}(0)$ $=4(-1)(1)(1)=-4$ [/esquestion] [esquestion] $\frac{\mathrm{d}^{2} \mathrm{x}}{\mathrm{dy}^{2}}$ equals : (1) $\left(\frac{\mathrm{d}^{2} \mathrm{y}}{\mathrm{dx}^{2}}\right)\left(\frac{\mathrm{dy}}{\mathrm{dx}}\right)^{-2}$ (2) $-\left(\frac{\mathrm{d}^{2} \mathrm{y}}{\mathrm{dx}^{2}}\right)\left(\frac{\mathrm{dy}}{\mathrm{dx}}\right)^{-3}$ (3) $\left(\frac{\mathrm{d}^{2} \mathrm{y}}{\mathrm{dx}^{2}}\right)^{-1}$ $(4)-\left(\frac{\mathrm{d}^{2} \mathrm{y}}{\mathrm{dx}^{2}}\right)^{-1}\left(\frac{\mathrm{dy}}{\mathrm{dx}}\right)^{-3}$ #tag# [AIEEE-2011] #sol# (2) $\frac{\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{dy}}\left(\left(\frac{\mathrm{d} y}{\mathrm{dx}}\right)^{-1}\right)=\frac{\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{dy}}\left(\left(\frac{\mathrm{dy}}{\mathrm{dx}}\right)^{-1}\right) \cdot \frac{\mathrm{dx}}{\mathrm{dy}}$ $=-\left(\frac{\mathrm{dy}}{\mathrm{dx}}\right)^{-2} \cdot \frac{\mathrm{d}^{2} \mathrm{x}}{\mathrm{dx}^{2}} \cdot \frac{\mathrm{dx}}{\mathrm{dy}}=-\left(\frac{\mathrm{d}^{2} y}{\mathrm{dx}^{2}}\right)\left(\frac{\mathrm{dy}}{\mathrm{dx}}\right)^{-3}$ [/esquestion] [esquestion] If $\mathrm{y}=\sec \left(\tan ^{-1} \mathrm{x}\right),$ then $\frac{\mathrm{dy}}{\mathrm{dx}}$ at $\mathrm{x}=1$ is equal to : (1) $\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}$ (2) $\frac{1}{2}$ (3) 1 (4) $\sqrt{2}$ #tag# [JEE-MAIN-2013] #sol# (1) $\mathrm{y}=\sec \left(\tan ^{-1} \mathrm{x}\right)=\sqrt{1+\mathrm{x}^{2}}$ $\frac{\mathrm{dy}}{\mathrm{dx}}=\frac{\mathrm{x}}{\sqrt{1+\mathrm{x}^{2}}}$ $\left.\frac{\mathrm{dy}}{\mathrm{dx}}\right|_{\mathrm{x}=1}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}$ [/esquestion] [esquestion] If $\mathrm{g}$ is the inverse of a function $f$ and $f^{\prime}(\mathrm{x})=\frac{1}{1+\mathrm{x}^{5}},$ then $\mathrm{g}^{\prime}(\mathrm{x})$ is equal to : (1) $1+x^{5}$ (2) $5 x^{4}$ (3) $\frac{1}{1+\{\mathrm{g}(\mathrm{x})\}^{5}}$ (4) $1+\{\mathrm{g}(\mathrm{x})\}^{5}$ #tag# [JEE-MAIN-2014] #sol# (4) $\mathrm{f}(\mathrm{g}(\mathrm{x}))=\mathrm{x}$ $\Rightarrow \mathrm{f}^{\prime}(\mathrm{g}(\mathrm{x})) \cdot \mathrm{g}^{\prime}(\mathrm{x})=1$ $\therefore \mathrm{g}^{\prime}(\mathrm{x})=\frac{1}{\mathrm{f}^{\prime}(\mathrm{g}(\mathrm{x}))}=1+\{\mathrm{g}(\mathrm{x})\}^{5}$ [/esquestion] [esquestion] If for $x \in\left(0, \frac{1}{4}\right),$ the derivative of $\tan ^{-1}\left(\frac{6 x \sqrt{x}}{1-9 x^{3}}\right)$ is $\sqrt{x} \cdot g(x),$ then $g(x)$ equals : (1) $\frac{3}{1+9 x^{3}}$ (2) $\frac{9}{1+9 x^{3}}$ (3) $\frac{3 x \sqrt{x}}{1-9 x^{3}}$ (4) $\frac{3 \mathrm{x}}{1-9 \mathrm{x}^{3}}$ #tag# [JEE-MAIN-2017] #sol# (2) Let $\mathrm{y}=\tan ^{-1}\left(\frac{6 \mathrm{x} \sqrt{\mathrm{x}}}{1-9 \mathrm{x}^{3}}\right)$ where $\mathrm{x} \in\left(0, \frac{1}{4}\right)$ $=\tan ^{-1}\left(\frac{2 \cdot\left(3 \mathrm{x}^{3 / 2}\right)}{1-\left(3 \mathrm{x}^{3 / 2}\right)}\right)=2 \tan ^{-1}\left(3 \mathrm{x}^{3 / 2}\right)$ As $3 x^{3 / 2} \in\left(0, \frac{3}{8}\right)$ $\therefore \frac{d y}{d x}=2 \times \frac{1}{1+9 x^{3}} \times 3 \times \frac{3}{2} \times x^{1 / 2}$ $\begin{aligned} &=\frac{9}{1+9 \mathrm{x}^{3}} \sqrt{\mathrm{x}} \\ \therefore \mathrm{g}(\mathrm{x}) &=\frac{9}{1+9 \mathrm{x}^{3}} \end{aligned}$ [/esquestion] [esquestion] If $\mathrm{x}=\sqrt{2^{\cos \mathrm{c}^{-1} \mathrm{t}}}$ and $\mathrm{y}=\sqrt{2^{\mathrm{sc}-\mathrm{t}}}(|\mathrm{t}| \geq 1),$ then $\frac{\mathrm{dy}}{\mathrm{dx}}$ is equal to : (1) $-\frac{y}{x}$ ( 2)$\frac{\mathrm{x}}{\mathrm{y}}$ $(3)-\frac{x}{y}$ (4) $\frac{y}{x}$ #tag# [JEE-MAIN-2018] #sol# (1) [/esquestion] [esquestion] If $\mathrm{f}(\mathrm{x})=\sin ^{-1}\left(\frac{2 \times 3^{\mathrm{x}}}{1+9^{\mathrm{x}}}\right),$ then $\mathrm{f}^{\prime}\left(-\frac{1}{2}\right)$ equals : (1) $\sqrt{3} \log _{e} \sqrt{3}$ (2) $-\sqrt{3} \log _{e} 3$ (3) $-\sqrt{3} \log _{e} \sqrt{3}$ (4) $\sqrt{3} \log _{e} 3$ #tag# [JEE-MAIN-2018] #sol# (1) [/esquestion] [esquestion] If $\mathrm{f}(\mathrm{x})=\left|\begin{array}{cc}{\cos \mathrm{x}} & {\mathrm{x}} \\ {2 \sin \mathrm{x}} & {\mathrm{x}^{2} 2 \mathrm{x}} \\ {\tan \mathrm{x}} & {\mathrm{x}} & {1}\end{array}\right|,$ then $\lim _{\mathrm{x} \rightarrow 0} \frac{\mathrm{f}^{\prime}(\mathrm{x})}{\mathrm{x}}$ (1) exists and is equal to 0 (2) exists and is equal to –2 (3) exists and is equal to 2 (4) does not exist #tag# [JEE-MAIN-2018] #sol# (2) [/esquestion] [esquestion] If $x^{2}+y^{2}+\sin y=4,$ then the value of $\frac{d^{2} y}{d x^{2}}$ at the point $(-2,0)$ is (1) –34 (2) –32 (3) –2 (4) 4 #tag# #sol# (1) [/esquestion]
The Methods of Differentiation questions can be tracked alongside other topics through the JEE Mains PYQ chapter-wise PDF download index.
These Methods of Differentiation questions are pulled from real exams — see them in their original paper format on our JEE Main previous year paper page.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many questions come from Method of Differentiation in JEE Main?
NTA typically sets 1–2 questions directly from Method of Differentiation per session, carrying 4–8 marks. Indirect applications in Tangents and Normals, Rate of Change, and Maxima–Minima can bring the effective contribution to 10–12 marks. Consistent practice with PYQs from 2009 onwards gives the best preparation for this range.
What are the most important differentiation techniques for JEE Main?
The five most tested techniques are: (1) chain rule with inverse trigonometric functions, (2) implicit differentiation, (3) parametric differentiation, (4) logarithmic differentiation for expressions like x^x, and (5) differentiation of determinants. Questions on second-order derivatives frequently combine two of these techniques in a single problem.
How do I differentiate implicit functions for JEE Main?
Differentiate both sides of the equation with respect to x, treating y as a function of x and applying the chain rule wherever y appears. Then collect all dy/dx terms on one side and solve. Always substitute the given point back into the original equation first to find the exact value of y before computing the numerical answer.
Is Method of Differentiation in JEE Main syllabus 2025?
Yes. Method of Differentiation is explicitly listed under Calculus in the NTA JEE Main 2025 official syllabus. It falls under Unit 10 — Differential Calculus — and includes derivatives of all standard functions, rules of differentiation, higher-order derivatives, and implicit and parametric differentiation.
What is the trick for inverse function derivatives in JEE Main?
If g is the inverse of f, use the identity g′(x) = 1/f′(g(x)). This avoids computing g explicitly. In Q5 above, since f′(x) = 1/(1+x⁵), applying this identity directly gives g′(x) = 1 + {g(x)}⁵ in two lines — no complex algebra needed.

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eSaral Academic and Editorial Team
Team eSaral is the collective author profile for educational content created by eSaral’s teachers and academic contributors. The team draws on expertise from IIT graduates, doctors, experienced educators and subject specialists to develop resources for JEE, NEET and school students. Our articles aim to explain concepts clearly and help students study with confidence.
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